The medical exam table, medical procedure chair, and dental exam chair lie at the center of the patient care experience in nearly all outpatient clinical settings. Traditionally, these items have been used solely for their outward utilitarian benefit—that is, solely to support and position a patient for a medical or dental procedure or examination. Recognizing the need for medical and dental tables and chairs that provide greater functionality and efficiency to the clinical space, the present invention is broadly directed to medical and dental tables and chairs that include an integrated scale for determining a subject's weight and a processing system that allows these tables and chairs to communicate with and be controlled by a vital signs monitor. The present invention is thus further directed to vital signs monitors that are capable of receiving weight measurements obtained from the aforementioned medical and dental tables and chairs, as well as controlling the position of these tables and chairs. While the breadth and depth of the present invention is described in greater detail below, it is useful from a background perspective to understand certain shortcomings that currently exist in the clinical space that would be effectively addressed through implementation of the present invention.
Presently, when a subject enters a clinical space for an examination or other medical or dental treatment or procedure, the subject is frequently weighed on a common scale located in a common area of the clinical space. Not only is such a practice often uncomfortable for a subject who is self-conscious regarding his or her weight, but it is also inefficient since weighing of the subject constitutes a separate step that must be performed by the clinician. Additionally, it is often also the case that the clinician must perform the time-consuming step of manually entering the subject's weight into the clinician's records. Furthermore, once a subject enters the examination or treatment room, the clinician must generally obtain certain vital signs from the subject and is then required to properly position the examination table or chair once the subject is seated thereon before being able to begin treatment or examination of the subject.
Given the above-noted observations, the present invention is directed to medical and dental exam tables and chairs that include an integrated weight scale and is also directed to vital signs monitors capable of connecting to, controlling, and communicating with these medical and dental exam tables and chairs. By providing such devices, efficiency of data collection, uniformity and efficacy of clinical treatment, and the patient's clinical experience can be greatly enhanced.